


Hotel Olympus

by laurasimonsdaughter



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, If I could turn this into a sitcom I would, More of a narrative concept than a story, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29566875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurasimonsdaughter/pseuds/laurasimonsdaughter
Summary: The worship of Greek Gods is going through a bit of a renaissance of late, but since appropriate temples for them to safely manifest on earth are still in very short supply, Hotel Olympus provides a place for them to stay whenever the gods feel the need to make an appearance.Charlie is the new front of house manager. She has excellent training and experience. What she doesn't have is the faintest interest in or knowledge of Greek Mythology. But a job’s a job and guests are guests and by all means, if sir and madam want a bowl of fresh pomegranates brought up to the bridal suite she’ll see to it that it happens immediately. She’s dealt with way worse.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

“Excellent!” the manager rumbled after a final glance at her references. He was clearly making an effort to keep his voice down, but this guy was probably the biggest man Charlie had ever seen and he had a voice to match. He seemed to like her though, which was all that mattered right now. “If it is agreeable to you, you could start next week! Just as soon as we have the proper checks and paperwork in order.”

“I can’t wait, Sir,” she grinned. There had not been a single job interview that she had gotten through this easily. And for a position as front of house _manager_. It did feel slightly like bluffing, saying she knew how to handle all that. But this hotel, no matter how fancy it was, was way smaller than her previous hotel. She very much doubted she’d be any busier. It’d just be more responsibility. _And_ better pay.

“Excellent, excellent,” he said again, leafing through his various papers with his huge hands. “Yes, and I think we have gone through all the questions.”

Charlie smiled politely. He had had a lot of very peculiar questions. Well, perhaps wanting to know about people’s allergies wasn’t very weird. But she wasn’t kitchen staff, so why would it matter if she was allergic to grapes or pomegranates? Anyway, she wasn’t. Nor did she have a problem with dogs or birds and neither did she have hay fever.

“If you don’t mind, I so just have one question of my own,” she said.

“But of course!” the manager said. Charlie wished she could remember his name, but it had been very long and he had only said it once.

“It said in the job listing that the hotel caters exclusively to Olympians,” she said cautiously. “Just out of curiosity, I was not aware there were so many training facilities nearby?”

The manager looked at her in surprise. “Training facilities?”

“Yes, if you are running this hotel specifically for Olympic athletes, there must be a demand for it.”

To Charlie’s surprise the manager stared at her with visible distress. She sincerely hoped that she was not the first person to suggest to him that his business model was a little niche. Because if not, this place would be belly-up in a week. But did he not mention it has been here for a while now?

“Not athletes,” he said finally. “ _Gods_ , miss.”

Charlie did her best to keep her expression neutral. _Sports fans_. “Yes,” she said. “I’m sure they are very impressive. Well, I’m excited to cater to them!” Perhaps this place was some sort of pet project by some ridiculous rich person. Well, as long as she got paid she didn’t care.

“No, miss!” the manager exclaimed. “I do fear you don’t understand. This hotel is not for athletes. Our guests are the deities and demigods of the old Hellenic world.”

This time Charlie stared at him. The deities and demigods of the… “So this is an _experience_ hotel,” she said, slowly. Yes that had to be it. “With LARPing for the guests.”

The manager’s eyes went as glassy as Charlie was sure hers had done at the word ‘Hellenic’. “Miss Charlie,” he said weakly. “I…”

Right at that moment there was a sudden noise outside. It was a rattling, cracking noise and while something about it sounded instantly familiar Charlie had no idea what it was. She looked at the manager in alarm and he cleared his throat.

“Yes, ah, you see…” He gestured helplessly to the window behind him.

Charlie, her mind strangely blank, got to her feet and walked towards it, just as the noise came to a halt. She looked out the window and froze. Then, after a good while, she turned around to face her future manager and said: “I see.”

What she had as a matter of fact seen, outside at the entrance of the hotel just now, had been several guests arriving in three strange little open carriages drawn by – in that exact order – one white and three black horses, two peacocks, and six golden antlered deer. She had looked at them a good long while too, but they had not disappeared. So that was that. Apparently.

The manager met her eyes with the unmistakable expression of a hotelier desperately in need of new staff. “The worship of our old Gods has started to grow again, of late, you see,” he said, sounding rather pleading. “But there are no temples anymore for them to safely manifest on earth. If they wish to make an appearance in person…Hotel Olympus is there to provide.”

Charlie listened to him in silence, a slight buzz of static in her ears coming from the place where her own thoughts usually were. Outside she could _just_ hear someone going: “Woah there! Mind your hooves, darling! There’s a good deer. Aren’t you all _beauties_.” Well.

“Miss Charlie?”

She lifted her head. “Overtime is compensated by equivalent paid leave or 120 percent pay, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I can start next week.”


	2. Chapter 2

As far as jobs went, Charlie had had stranger starts than her first day at Hotel Olympus. The general manager – she still couldn’t remember his name and absolutely no one seemed to use it, so she had decided to stick to “sir” and “chief” like the other employees – had introduced her to the principal staff with a hurried sort of good humour and had then run off for “a meeting with His Majesty”. Charlie didn’t know who exactly that referred to, but as long as mister majesty wasn’t due to check into her hotel today she didn’t much care.

 _Her_ hotel, of course, because it was. There was no other way to run front office properly, she had to think of all of it as her own. A strange, unnerving place it may be. With stables that bore inexplicable plaques saying “Mares of Thrace not allowed” and “locked rooms labelled “deities only”. But she had decided it would be hers and so it was. And as it was her own, she would make sure it all ran smoothly.

Which is why she went straight up to the check-in counter at the first glimpse of the receptionist’s expression. Receptionists were often stressed, this was a fact Charlie felt unable to fix, but a visibly _frustrated_ receptionist always foretold trouble.

“Hi!” she smiled warmly. “Don’t tell me, it was Cassandra, right?”

“Yes, miss,” the young woman agreed, quickly straightening up behind the counter.

“Charlie is just fine,” she assured her. “Is something the matter? You look displeased.”

Cassandra gave her a level stare. “Not that it will help to tell you, but we’re going to end up double booked.”

Charlie made sure not to frown at the first statement. Clearly whoever managed front of house before her hadn’t been worth their salt. “Really? How come?”

“Yes,” she sighed. “Both Selene and Artemis are going to want the penthouse suite next week. It will be a blue moon and everyone will be doing moon rituals. We will have to give the room to Artemis, because nowadays way more people call on her, and Selene will be furious. So then Eos and Helios will be furious too and the manager will be upset with us all.”

Poor Cassandra, Charlie concluded, was a bit of a pessimist. She knew of no better cure for that than practicality and realism, though, so she nodded and replied: “I see, well that’s no good. I will speak to Facility about temporarily making the conservatory available as a bedroom.”

Cassandra gaped at her. “W-what?”

“If a good view of the night’s sky is the point, the conservatory would do just as well, wouldn’t it?” Charlie asked. “I mean, I presume Selena and Ortemis have something to do with the moon, if people need them for a blue moon.” She still had no clue why people would want gods to show up for natural phenomena that were going to happen with or without them, but that was not her concern right now.

“Yes, but, I-” Cassandra stammered, eyes round as saucers. “You _believe_ me?”

“Why wouldn’t I? You’ve worked here much longer than I have. I can imagine this sort of thing has happened before.”

“Yes but, surely it’s not going to happen _now_ , right?” Cassandra pressed frantically. “Not now _I_ told you about it?”

Charlie frowned. “How would I know? You take care of booking in the guests, I trust your judgement. Even if there’s a chance this might happen, we should be prepared.”

Cassandra, astonishingly, suddenly looked very much like she might cry. “…do you not believe in Apollo?”

Charlie blinked. “Who?”

On the whole Charlie liked to think she was prepared for pretty much anything in her professional life. But this was certainly the first time she had been hugged round the neck by a sobbing receptionist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After Charlie the myth-illiterate protagonist I think Cassandra the Clairvoyant Receptionist was the first character that absolutely stuck with me


End file.
